Neanderpundit

Many years ago, I was in Cabelas looking at the guns I don’t own yet, and saw a little Plainfield carbine in the showcase. I asked to look at it and they unlocked the case- it wasn’t there because it was particularly valuable, but because it wouldn’t fit in a rifle rack because of its hideous wire stock. It looked like this.

I knew exactly what it was, and though it was an ugly duckling I could see it in a new stock already.

So Partner loaned me the cash and I haggled them down to $248, if memory serves. I think on that day we also negotiated a Springer for Partner. Anyway, since then, I have tried to pay him back for it, but he says it’s commission for the money I’ve negotiated off his firearm purchases (I seem to have the soul of an Arab goat trader.)

Anyway I got a nice new stock from a friend of mine who manufactures them, and finished it nice, and it looks like this. I’ve posted this picture before.

The old stock sat around gathering dust for some years until I decided to put it on Ebay, where I got $200 plus shipping for it as fast as you can imagine.

So the carbine cost 48 bucks, basically.

The stock came about 90% inletted but the iron varies so they leave extra material in key areas. Not interested in buying another replacement stock set, I took my time and went slowly, tiny scraps of emery board and a scalpel my predominant tools.

This is one of the Ithaca LeFevers, so the belly has a tapered plate which makes getting the metal to wood fit… interesting. You have to blacken the receiver with a candle and assemble, then abrade away the spots where the wood touches metal, lather, rinse, repeat until you scream.

The top is mostly straight lines so it was a bit easier. I don’t know how well the wood was dried and I don’t know how much shrinkage it has left, but I have left some small gaps that can be closed by pening up the wood where the tang hits the stock, later on.

Sorry about the crappy cellphone pics. If anyone can suggest a camera that does decent closeup work that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, I’m all ears. I really likethe elegant line of this stock, which is whjy I want to make the gun usable again. I thought about bluing the receiver or color casehardening it, but I think a cleaning and polish will do wonders, and preserve the elegance of the old girl.

trying to type a post last night and finally deleted the whole damned thing. If there is ANYONE WHO KNOWS how to make the accursed moron WYSIWYG post editor go away and give me back the HTML editing method in WP, then PLEASE let me know. This is the biggest clusterfuck I ever saw.

UPDATE! Thanks, masked man. Ahhh. Sanity again.